Jaguars defensive tackle Nate Collins arrested

Nate Collins hasn’t made too many headlines on the field during his two seasons with the Jaguars, but he made one off the field when he was arrested for marijuana possession.

The Fauquier Times-Democrat reported Monday that Collins was arrested during a traffic stop last Thursday in Warrenton, Virginia. State troopers initially pulled Collins over for having illegally tinted windows and, per the Times-Democrat, they smelled marijuana in the car. A subsequent search turned up joints in a bag in the trunk. Tania Ganguli of the Florida Times-Uniontried to get comment from the police and Collins about the arrest, but was turned down on both fronts.

Collins had 10 tackles in 12 games for the Jaguars this season. He’s scheduled to be an exclusive rights free agent this offseason.

You would think that there would be a universal well known standard for how dark window tint could be and the shop that did the work would be held at least partially responsible or you could take your care to an inspection station to make sure it was within acceptable limits or something.

This is like the billionth story about an athlete getting pulled over for too dark tint and then getting busted for something else.

It seems like an easy excuse for the cops to go fishing without probably cause.

This story is fishy you can’t smell joints coming from the trunk and I’m sure they would be in a bag as well. The idiot probably gave up his 4th amendment rights and allowed the cop to search the car with permission. All of this would have been avoided had he known his constitutional rights.

joetoronto says:Feb 27, 2012 5:36 PM

Or it could have been avoided if he wasn’t so careless with his career.

Throw a tarp over him, he’s done.

realitypolice says:Feb 27, 2012 5:42 PM

Stupid Athlete 101.

Don’t over tint your windows! You might as well hang a sign on them instead that says, “PLEASE PULL ME OVER!!!”

Not saying it’s right, it’s not.

@minnesotablizzard:

Where did it say they smelled the joints in the trunk? When I read, it just said the smelled marijuana. Maybe he had smoked in the car recently. Smell lingers.

@lilrob10201:

Agree completely. But until that happens, you have to make sure you don’t set yourself up to be abused by out of control cops.

As a rule, most cops won’t even beef about window tint unless it’s below 30% tint, which is actually pretty damn dark. I don’t get why folks have to tint them down all the way to 10% then complain when the cops pinch ‘em for too dark of tint. Throw some weedage into the mix, and jah sure I can see how our boy here got all confused.

The magic number is 30% – anything below that will get you pinched, seriously.

Meanwhile, his career probably is waving bye-bye at this point, which is a shame because weed really should be legalized. The users, on the other hand, well, some need to be read to from the Book of Revelations, and I’m not referring to the Bible (I use that book as a doorstop anyway).

Turns out that Nate’s “smoked glass” windows were the result of long term accumulation of residue from second hand marijuana smoke. Illegal to tint them in that fashion.

raiders757 says:Feb 27, 2012 6:43 PM

Virginia doesn’t allow as dark a tint as the states around us, and have been cracking down on it throughout the state over the past year. Window tint shops don’t care what the law is, and will tint you as dark as you are willing to pay for. They know you’ll be back to pay them to peel it off and put on a lighter tint at a later date.

I agree with raider757. I know it looks cool, but why give cops an easy reason to pull u over, especially if u know u r going to be riding dirty.

keeponhating says:Feb 27, 2012 7:39 PM

A friend of mine did a “ride along” with AZ DPS to see if he wanted to work there. The cop he rode with told him straight up That things like cracked windshields, broken taillights, and tint violations have very little to do with safety. Its an excuse to pull u over and have a look in your car

DWB with tinted windows and pot in the trunk – not too smart, especially for a guy who made only 10 tackles last year. The odds are pretty good he’ll have plenty of time to smoke all the pot he wants as he spends the next ten years trying to earn the equivalent of one year as a minimum salaried player in the NFL.